The present invention relates to devices of and methods for generating tones and pictures on the basis of input performance information.
Various tone and picture generating devices have been known which are designated to generate tones and pictures on the basis of input performance information, such as MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data. One type of the known tone and picture generating devices is arranged to control display timing of each frame of pre-made picture data while generating tones on the basis of MIDI data. There have also been known another-type tone and picture generating devices which generate tones by controlling a toy or robot on the basis of input MIDI data.
In the first-type known tone and picture generating devices, the quality of generated pictures depends on the quality of the picture data, due to the arrangement that the timing to display each frame of the pre-made picture data is controlled on the basis of the MIDI data alone. Thus, in a situation where a performance on the musical instrument based on the MIDI data, i.e., motions of the player and musical instrument, is to be reproduced by computer graphics (hereinafter abbreviated "CG"), it is necessary for a human operator to previously analyze the MIDI data (or musical score) and create each frame using his or her own sensitivity and discretion, which would thus require difficult, complicated and time-consuming works. Thus, with these known devices, it is not possible to synthesize the performance through computer graphics. In addition, because tones and pictures are generated on the MIDI data independently of each other, the tone and picture generating devices would present the problem that the quality of the generated tones and pictures can not be enhanced simultaneously or collectively; that is, the generated pictures (with some musical expression) can not be enhanced even when the quality of the generated tones (with some musical expression) is enhanced successfully, or vice versa.
Further, the second-type known tone and picture generating devices, designed to generate tones by controlling a toy or robot, can not accurately simulate actual performance motions of a human player although they are capable of generating tones, because their behavior is based on the artificial toy or robot.